Feature

The Strip

Shot in Las Vegas—a collection of millions of tourists and innumerable casinos, hotels, and bars—a surreal, almost stage-like set of images that reveal the temporary nature of this city in the desert.

Photographs and text by Ed Peters

The Strip

Shot in Las Vegas—a collection of millions of tourists and innumerable casinos, hotels, and bars—a surreal, almost stage-like set of images that reveal the temporary nature of this city in the desert.

Las Vegas—and its famous strip of casinos, hotels, and bars—only exists due to a series of historical coincidences. Among other things, the confluence of legalized gambling, quickie marriages, World War II (and the Baby Boom that followed), and enterprising gangsters came together and transformed a small railroad stop into one of the entertainment capitals of the world.

There are few other places where one can witness a sophisticated entertainment industry using all of its resources to attract millions of tourists. Its inducements are games of chance, vibrant colors, pop architecture, and “good times.”

Sometimes I feel as if I’ve photographed a group of bizarre and provisional stage sets where actors appear very briefly and then exit the scene. In a way that’s true. Las Vegas is full of transient people, and the buildings are notorious for their impermanence. That’s why I suspect I’ll likely have to be satisfied with capturing only the narrowest temporal slice of this intensely surreal city.